Gorilla Journal 33, December 2006

Decline in the Hippopotamus Population of the Virunga National Park

A census carried out October 23rd, 2006 revealed that there are only 629 hippos left in the Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the late 1960s and early 1970s there were around 30,000 hippos living in the park. The aerial census carried out by the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), with funding from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, showed that this population had declined by 98%.
With the second round of presidential elections in Congo less than one week away, the Mai-Mai and other non integrated local militia groups were poaching at an unprecedented rate because they believed their days in the park were numbered. The Congolese army, who operate in the park without sufficient rations or salary, have also been accused of poaching the hippos, often in collusion with the militia troops.
The problem had become so serious that the Ugandan military deployed troops along the River Ishasha, which separates Congo from Uganda, to help deter the Mai-Mai from killing the park's largest remaining group of hippos consisting of only 134 individuals. The Mai-Mai and other poachers have been targeting hippos and elephants for their ivory, which is collected regularly from the militia camps and is thought to leave Congo through Uganda and Sudan to be traded illegally on the international black market.
The Mai-Mai have refused to engage in dialogue with the rangers and have recently begun launching attacks on their patrol posts. Despite the fact that over 100 rangers have been killed over the last few years trying to protect Virunga's wildlife populations, and that they have not received a proper salary for more than a decade, the rangers continue to show remarkable commitment, determination and fortitude. After years of hardship, some support from the European Union and other donors is enabling the Congolese rangers to take control of the situation, but this positive development may be too late for the hippos.
Poaching has now become so prolific, and the threat to rangers so serious, that a combined operation between the park rangers and the UN peace keeping troops is needed. The Mai-Mai camps are well known to both the rangers and the UN, and an operation needs to be mounted quickly. But the UN is preoccupied with the lead up to the second round of elections and the militia forces have taken advantage of the situation. Over the last months the park has seen unprecedented levels of poaching, ambushes, violence, and violations of human rights.
Update December 2nd: The situation has gone from bad to worse, and despite significant risks, the ICCN are now sending their rangers to Vitshumbi to protect one of the last main hippo groups. The sudden increase in poaching comes as a direct result of UN and military troops leaving the park in support of operations against the dissident General Laurent Nkunda. The vacuum has been filled by a lunatic group of Mai-Mai rebel soldiers currently living in the park. Many of these soldiers have now moved out of the bush and into Vitshumbi, a fishing village on the edge of Lake Edward, where they are systematically destroying what remains of the hippo population.
Update December 4th: I have just flown over Vitshumbi where less than 2 months ago we had counted over 200 hippos. Today we saw just 13. This follows a massive slaughter over the past week by a group of Mai-Mai some 20 km east of Vitshumbi on the southern shores of Lake Edward. This same group of Mai-Mai attacked Lulimbi, a ranger station in the east of the park. Fortunately no one was killed, but they left a ranger badly injured and made off with 10 rifles and 4 walkie-talkies.
The Virunga Park's best chance now lies in the hands of its elite ranger force, trained by FZS and deployed to help protect the last few hippos from extinction. The Congo rangers are massively underresourced and are outnumbered five-to-one by poachers armed with machine guns and rocket launchers. UNESCO and the EU are engaging at the highest political levels in Kinshasa, but support in terms of patrol equipment, rations and salary supplements is desperately needed on the ground if the rangers are to halt the precipitous decline in hippos and wildlife.

Robert D. J. Muir (from his blog)

Robert D. J. Muir worked on research and community-based conservation; since February 2004, he has been working to re-start the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s Virunga National Park Conservation Programme.

Virunga National Park overview

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